Notes that pertain to this chapter:

The Phantomhive gardens are so elegant mainly because of Sebastian, who is called upon to do all manner of things in order to keep the estate running. Finnian, as we all know, is adorable but mostly incompetent. XD

For those of you who have never employed domestic servants before (which I'm guessing would be most of us,) it should be known that Ciel's previous indignation is fully justified by the sensibilities of the time period. Sebastian does take a great deal of liberties in the way that he relates to Lydia, who is his master. Normally, this would not be acceptable. He can get away with it because Lydia allows it, which is something that we'll get into later. :)

'jogged out of kelter'- to 'jog something out of kelter' would be the 19th-century equivalent of 'to mess something up' or 'to throw something off track.'

'beautiful'- In the modern time period, this adjective is used almost exclusively with women in mind; however, in the era of this story it was more gender-neutral, and could be used to describe the overall physical attractiveness of either sex.

Anyway, enjoy the new chapter! And for those of you who celebrated it, I hope you had a very happy Easter! :3

The Phantomhive gardens were so beautiful and well-kept that Lydia could not help but feel that it was somehow wrong to be wandering around them while in the mood she was currently in. She remembered these gardens to be just as they had remained; ageless, never-dying, rotating to suit the whims of the manor's owners. The plants in the gardens were constantly alive, no matter what the season. They were occasionally exchanged for newer or more exotic ones, and she recalled that as a child, whatever she had wished for in this garden had always appeared. When she was six, a week after she had tasted her first peach and declared it to be the most delicious fruit in the whole world, a fruit-bearing peach tree had magically grown up overnight outside her nursery window. She still remembered reaching out for peaches in the summer, whole play-tables full of peach slices and weak peach tea. Back then, she had thought that the garden was charmed by some sort of fairy who granted wishes. Now, she found herself inexplicably heading for that place near the eastern wall where she had spent so much of her childhood. The peach tree was still there, which did not surprise her in the slightest. The green buds upon the branches were beginning to ripen in the Spring air. Soon there would be peaches that would fill the tree, would fall to the ground, more peaches than she would know what to do with. She wondered who had eaten all those peaches while she'd been away.

The brown-haired girl reached out for the branches, running her hands across the familiar limbs which had grown longer and sturdier in her absence. How long since this tree had felt her touch! If trees possessed sentient spirits, she imagined that this one must have become melancholy, waiting through season upon season and every kind of weather for her return. She thought of it resolutely putting out fruit every summer, in hopes that her hands would reach up once again to pluck it. Feeling a wave of nostalgia pierce her chest, Lydia spread out her dress and slid down the trunk to the ground with her back to the tree, angling her head upward to gaze into the branches. The green-budded arms reached down, wanting to embrace her. "Poor tree." she murmured softly as a Spring breeze swept through the countryside afternoon. "Did you think I had forgotten you? Were you lonely, left behind so suddenly? If only you knew how hard it was for me to leave this place, where you sheltered me so well! Maybe then you would forgive me."

The young girl sighed, thinking back over the troubling events which had just occurred inside the manor. The peach tree was not the only being that had been rooted here without a choice, forced to wait in this hostile ground while she had been out in the world, growing wise and savvy and strong. Oh Sebastian, she thought with a half-sigh, absentmindedly tugging up a handful of grass by the roots. Then, as if her thought had summoned him, she looked up and he was there. The demon had stopped several yards away and was peering at her hesitantly, with his head tilted to one side. His black butler's uniform stood out pointedly against the colorful hues of the flowers all around him. Lydia quickly summoned a cross expression to her face.

"I ought to be angry."

He approached her swiftly and silently, and lowered himself to the ground by her side. He turned his red eyes upon Lydia, pointedly tracing a long finger over his pale lips.

"What makes you think I want to talk to you?" Lydia growled, sliding her knees up to her chest and pivoting away from him. Sebastian made several more hand signs in her general direction, trying to communicate pain. He knew that she would respond to that.

Lydia sighed again. "Bother you, Sebastian. Come here."

He leaned his head onto her shoulder, and she pressed her own fingers over his mouth, willing the needle that was still lodged in there to disappear. His hair was soft, and his body was heavy. Annoyed at how unashamed he seemed, Lydia pushed him away as soon as she was through. He curled up against the tree trunk too, and looked at her with expectant eyes. She allowed the pieces of grass to trickle out of her fingers and float away in the wind. "You jogged that completely out of kelter for me." Sebastian said nothing, watching the green blades as they rode into the sky. "You meant to do that, didn't you?"

"Yes, master."

"Why?" Lydia asked honestly. "Why do you feel the need to complicate my life even more, when I just got back? I understand that you're angry that I left in the first place-"

"Master, you cannot give him the ring!" Sebastian burst out strongly, producing said ring from his pocket and holding it out to her. Lydia snatched her hand away as though it were a snake. The demon clenched his own hands tightly and moved closer to her sitting form. "Please, take it. Your mother gave it to you, after all."

"No, Sebastian. You know very well I was never meant to have it. My mother broke Phantomhive family tradition when she gave me this ring, and now I'm returning it to its rightful owner. I don't want it on my finger."

"You can't, master." He insisted determinedly. "You are the oldest child. It is your right and your duty to-"

"Sebastian, why on earth do you care whether or not I've got this ring? It's just a ring. There are plenty of others. You of all people should know how material things pass away."

"Master…."

"Wait." Lydia said, her mind catching up with her mouth as she glanced down dubiously at the shining blue stone. "This isn't about the ring. Is it? It's about what it represents…." She gazed seriously at Sebastian, reaching up to rub her bandaged hand over one deep blue eye. "You still want me to take the contract, don't you?"

"Yes." The demon intoned, turning his red eyes upon Lydia and leaning in closer. "Very much."

"Is that even possible? You're already bound to my brother. You can't free yourself from that. It doesn't seem like a demon could have two contracts at once." The brown-haired girl reasoned carefully, sweeping her braids behind her shoulders and staring up at the window of her old nursery.

Sebastian growled a little, fisting his contract hand around the ring, but he answered calmly. "Normally, it is not possible. Answering to more than one master contradicts the notion of complete servitude, which is what a contract entails on the part of a demon. However, in your case, I have been bound to you from birth, since you are my truly intended master. As you demonstrated before, we share a connection that even my forced….attachment to your brother has not interfered with. Therefore, I am still able to form a fully effective contract with you."

Trying to avoid his eyes, Lydia's blue orbs turned downward and latched onto the white swath of bandages on her right arm. It had literally been her visual aid before; and seeing it now helped her to clear her mind. These past few days had witnessed the stirring up of many old memories, truths which she hadn't had to contend with since she'd left the manor. Sebastian was a demon; a silver-tongued, graceful creature that could convince humans that the sky was orange if he so chose. And Lydia, despite the addition of some fantastical gifts, was still fully human, still susceptible to his powers of persuasion. Normally, the only way for a master to avoid being batted around by the illusions of their contracted demon was to utilize their powers over said demon, making it feel pain and hampering its ability to use its own powers. However, Lydia had never desired to hurt Sebastian; she still did not, even though it was clearly obvious that the demon wanted to pull her in. Now, she thought, she no longer needed to worry about such things. She could be stronger than Sebastian where it counted. The bandaged limb served as a concrete, physical reminder of everything she had seen and done since the day that she'd received it.

"Master…..?" Sebastian inquired, reaching up to gently take hold of her unbandaged arm. Lydia swung her head back from the garden, waking herself from her thoughtful stupor.

"Sebastian, you know why I can't do that."

The demon's grip tightened incrementally, and he frowned. "Master, that was before, when you had to leave this place. Now that you've returned, everything that you left behind is waiting for you. You know that I am the key to the Phantomhive's wealth and success. Whoever holds me will hold the dignity of the true successor. Your illegitimate birth will cease to matter in light of the power that I can give you."

Lydia shook her head, then leaned it back against the tree trunk in sudden weariness. "Oh, Sebastian. That is wrong in so many ways." She murmured. "First of all, I have no desire to be the true successor of the Phantomhive house, nor to inherit the company. I already made this clear to Ciel today, before you came into the study. I relinquished all my prospects to him when I left five years ago, and I stand by that decision today. He seems to have benefitted from it as I hoped he would, and I have definitely been blessed to lose those things. The only thing I regret," she told him, looking the demon in the eye, "is that I had to leave you two behind."

"Master, I am trying to tell you that you do not have to give up the contract. You can still restore it." The demon insisted, drawing Lydia closer to his side. He bit his lip and stared down at the ring as she looked away. "I apologize for bringing up a topic with so many distressing memories for you, but master, you force my hand." He attempted once again to press the blue piece of jewelry onto her finger. She deftly shook her dark-braided head.

"No, Sebastian. I don't want the power, and furthermore, accepting the contract with you would be tantamount to declaring myself a rival to my brother. That is exactly the opposite of what I came here to do. It would be highly counterproductive."

"You are the firstborn. It is your right-"

"No, Sebastian." Lydia repeated wondering how many times she was going to have to say it. "This isn't about rights and duties. Not at all. And finally….I refused the contract the first time because my nature would not allow me to accept it. You know that. I wanted to live freely in the world, without a demon overshadowing my life. This has not changed."

They stared at each other underneath the shade of the sturdy tree, the soft breezes of Spring swirling all around them. Sebastian bit his lip, and Lydia suddenly felt her entirely human heart shift towards him; he couldn't help being a demon, after all, and she understood exactly why he wanted her to take the contract so badly, why he'd waited so impatiently for her return. Still, this was an area in which she knew she would not be moved. Not that she had really expected Sebastian to give up that easily.

"I promise that I will not overshadow you, master." The demon declared persuasively. "I may simply hover a little. I am sure that five years in the world has not altered your tendency towards clumsiness. It would suit us both for me to stay by your side and protect you."

"I don't need you to protect me anymore, Sebastian." Lydia's voice came out soft, harmonizing with the thrum of the gentle wind through the leaves above their heads.

"With all due respect, considering the extremely scarce amount of knowledge which you possessed regarding the world before you so recklessly threw yourself out into it, it is a miracle you've survived to return to your birthplace at all."

Lydia did not dispute this part of his argument. "Yes, but I have survived." She pointed out, rolling her arms languidly onto the grassy ground. "And now I am older, wiser, and stronger. I am taking care of myself, and I intend to carry on in this manner. I do not need the Phantomhive's fortune, and I do not wish to establish the contract."

The demon sat up suddenly, his red eyes flaring as he loomed over the slender human. He jerked his hand off of her arm and dug it into the peach tree's trunk instead, clawed fingers making grating noises against the wood. Lydia stood her ground, looking the unholy creature straight in the eyes. She would not be taken in by his honey-sweet voice and graceful reasoning; neither by his angry red eyes and ominous presence. There were ways, apart from torturing him, that would serve to make Sebastian understand that she was serious in her intentions.

"Why have you returned then, master? What is your purpose?" the demon demanded in a sharper voice, narrowing his bloody eyes into slits. "Did you only come to watch the demise of your persecutor? Do you intend to simply vanish again after this last familial affair is through?"

Lydia could hear the accusation within the anger, and she almost looked away. Feeling that there had already been more than enough misunderstandings within this afternoon, she shook her braided head emphatically. "No, Sebastian- I should say not! I already told you that it is my time to return to the manor, and not just for a day, either. I rather intend to involve myself with this place again, so long as I am able."

Sebastian held very still, his narrow eyes becoming wider and staring down into hers from the black-topped height from which he loomed over her. Lydia did not know what he was feeling, did not know what he could be feeling, since demons were said to sense things quite differently than humans did. Nevertheless, she felt that this moment of temporary incapacitation was a good time to make peace, so she gently pushed up the sleeve of her unbandaged arm and offered it to him. It took Sebastian several moments to react and hook it in his own arm, affixing himself to her side. "You intend to be here again….?" he murmured, drawing the claws on his other hand out of the peach tree's bark.

"Yes, Sebastian." Lydia told him, feeling his tense, dark aura begin to lessen incrementally. If she had felt like being humorous, she would have asked, Are you pleased? As it was, she didn't need to.

"Then why not stay the night?" The demon queried, seeming to have recovered his usual suave manner. "You could recline in your old room if you choose. I-"

"Oh bother you, Sebastian!" Lydia cut in sternly, remembering why she was out here in the first place. "Who are you to be inviting me to stay in the manor when you've just created such a hard situation for me in there? My poor brother! I had thought to become more familiar with him before revealing the appearance of my right arm. He's positively traumatized about it….even now." She sighed, leaning her head back against the tree once again. "You do realize, don't you, that my future involvement with Phantomhive manor depends on my ability to form a working relationship with Ciel. I don't want to fail him. So if you want me to stay, you shouldn't impede this process anymore, like you've just done."

There was a parturient pause. "….So, then. You came back for him."

Lydia felt like slapping her palm to her forehead. "Stupid demon, I came back for you too. Just not in the way that you've been expecting."

"But-"

"Have I not helped you?" she asked more gently, indicating toward their linked arms. Sebastian's red eyes stared out across the gardens, toward the study window.

"Yes, master, and I wish to be of service to you as well. But you know that as long as you refuse to take the contract, my ability to protect you is incomplete."

"It's a risk that I've taken for the past five years. I will continue to do so."

"But why, master? The reasoning upon which you have been operating since your departure- and which led to such an event in the first place- is highly illogical. Even if your brother is dear to you, that does not mean you ought to give up everything for him. You are allowing your human empathies to get the better of you, to take from you that which should be yours." Sebastian insisted intensely. The brown-haired girl huffed as a warm breeze flooded the gardens. She could see it from her vantage point beside this tree- the path which she had taken as she had left the manor for the last time, five years ago. That day was still keen in her mind. The whispers, the shouts. It had been raining as she had rushed along with nothing much but the clothes on her back. Her skin had been riddled with bruises, like overcast clouds. Big, dark splotches from the blows dealt by the people inside the manor, who had done their utmost to drive her away- and small, light finger-markings from Sebastian's hands. He had exhausted them both with trying to make her stay in that last hour. She recalled that in the days ahead, while she had lain nearly incapacitated with shock and amazement in her father's house, she had been most distraught as she had watched these tiny markings fade from her skin. They had been precious proof that someone cherished her, that somebody wanted her enough to hold onto her so tightly that it hurt. No matter what, she couldn't be angry at Sebastian for that. Even if he was a stupid demon.

"Sebastian-" she began, hugging her free hand to the side off her arm. At that moment, however, they found themselves interrupted by the sudden noises of a chattering group of humans, materializing into the air very suddenly, as if someone had opened a door in the manor. As the noise grew closer to their tree, Sebastian stood up fluidly, gently using his linked arm to lift Lydia to her feet. He frowned at the wall from around which the voices were approaching. "It would seem that a number of our 'guests' have decided to take an afternoon stroll. Come with me, master, we ought to go back inside." Lydia hesitated, looking toward the road. She didn't need to leave right now, but soon….. Yet Sebastian had followed her eyes, and a moment later, he was deftly steering her back toward the building, his monstrous strength viable within his body even as he kept in under control. Lydia knew that she could stop him if she really wanted to, but she tactfully decided to let him have his way this time. They hadn't seen each other in five years, after all; she ought not to be running off again so soon.

"Master, if it would please you to consider what I've said…." The demon sought to continue his persuasion as they approached the servants' entrance near the back. Lydia closed her eyes. A moment later, the young girl ground her heels to a halt and deftly pushed the demon away so that she was facing him. Sebastian's eyes widened in surprise, and he winced in pain as her hand left his own. Lydia considered him for a moment, bright blue eyes on deep, dark red.

"You're as beautiful as I remember you to be, Sebastian."

The demon looked utterly lost.

"You're strong and clever and talented. You know many things….much more than I will ever be aware of. You're powerful- I know you are- and you've lived for countless lifetimes. You talk to me about family and brothers and 'human empathies' as though you know them through and through, but-" Lydia tilted her head, her braids falling to one side- "you really don't understand, do you? You have a heart, but you cannot love."

The demon twitched as some kind of discomfort seized him. He looked away, and then forced himself to look back. "Master, I may have never felt these emotions personally, but I have lived long enough and seen enough of human failings to know that there is no value in such things as family and love. You ought not to let these illusions impede you."

"If there was no value in these that 'impede' me, don't you think that we humans would have figured that ought by now? We're not quite as stupid as you think we are. We do learn from our mistakes." Lydia crossed her arms and stood herself up tall. "We as a species have been alive for goodness-knows how long, and from age to age we stubbornly continue to gravitate toward love. There is an intrinsic value in such that you cannot learn of by merely observing; you must feel it for yourself. If you could do this, you would understand why I left, and why I cannot now take the contract and put myself up against my brother."

"And what did he ever do for you?" Sebastian demanded lowly. He did not need to draw himself up, as he was already taller than Lydia. "He is not even your full blood sibling. He is only your brother by halves. Have you forgotten whose son he is? Did you run so far away that you lost your memories of that man and all he did to you?"

"Of course not." Lydia countered, pressing a hand to her forehead in sudden weariness. "Of course not, Sebastian. But I cannot hate Ciel simply for what his father was. That kind of thinking will doom me."

"That kind of thinking will preserve you!" Sebastian protested, gesturing violently toward the study window. If he had been a less self-controlled demon, Lydia had a feeling that he would have stamped his foot, and perhaps cracked the gardens in half. "That boy is exactly his father in miniature! Power-hungry, cold, inconsiderate, arrogant. I know of what I speak in this matter, master! I have been chained to him for the past five years, and he has made me feel every one of his vices." The black-haired creature clenched his fists tightly, glaring toward the window behind which her brother usually sat. Lydia bit her lip, shaken, but she refused to give in. She didn't like what she was seeing, but she was seeing things more clearly now.

"And you yourself are neither power-hungry, cold, inconsiderate, nor arrogant, Sebastian?"

"I am a demon." He insisted, as though it were a valid excuse. Then, seeing that she was not going to be swayed, he turned in frustration toward the gardens and braced himself against a wall, his back to her. In a voice so low that she could barely hear him, he whispered bitterly, "You don't know how I've suffered. Although I don't know if you care…."

She felt his breath hitch in surprise as she circled around him, pulled him back toward her, and embraced him tightly. The demon's body froze, hard as stone. Lydia was tall enough now that her head rested over his chest, and she could hear the hollow emptiness inside of him where there should have been a heartbeat. She understood his nature; but still, this made her sad. "Of course I care about you." Lydia declared, re-connecting her hand with his bare wrist. "You're such a stupid-" she gave a tiny half-laugh, "stupid, interfering, bothersome demon- but I'd be lying horribly if I said I hadn't missed you all these years. I know that you've suffered."

Outwardly, Sebastian remained still as a statue. It was only because she was so close to him that Lydia could sense his tense body beginning to relax, just a little. Suddenly, the sound of heavy, booted, running feet flashed through her ears. The brown-haired girl barely had time to push herself away from the butler before a red-haired figure burst onto the scene and immediately latched onto her former place, all the while wailing, "Mister Sebaaaaastiaaaan!" as if the world were coming to an end. Sebastian jerked out of his reverie and immediately set about trying to pry the figure off him, while it continued to wail incoherently. Lydia could now see that it was the figure of a woman, perhaps a few years older than herself, and dressed in a maid's uniform. She had a cute face, the upper portion of which was mainly covered in large glasses, and (Lydia could not help but notice,) she had rather large breasts as well. Furthermore, she seemed to be in a state of high panic.

As Lydia stared, the black-haired demon succeeded in briefly freeing himself from the clutches of the maid, who immediately seized him again as he tried to step back. "Meirin, what is the matter?" he demanded smoothly, casting his eyes all about the garden as the two staggered around in a tangled circle. The woman gestured furiously to somewhere in the distance, but it was unclear exactly where she was pointing to.

"Is it Ciel?" Lydia stepped forward, seized by a sudden and intense worry. The woman stopped blubbering and gaped at her, as if she had just appeared out of thin air.

"Who- who are you?"

"We'll become acquainted later, I am sure." Lydia answered, neatly dodging the question. "Is Ciel all right?"

"Th- the young master is fine, as far as I know." Meirin answered, wiping her eyes on her apron. "But oh, Mister Sebastian! You must come right away!"

"What has happened?" the demon asked, slipping his gloves back on.

"One of the guests!- she's fallen into the garden river! She was crossing the bridge but there was a hole in it because Finnian dropped a tree there earlier this morning and she didn't see it and she fell through and now she's trapped in the mud and she's ever so angry!" The panicked woman explained without a single pause.

Sebastian ran a hand through his hair, glancing worriedly at Lydia. "Can Finnian not extract her? I am with someone at the moment."

"He'll hurt her with his strength!"

The demon sighed, looking as though he would quite like to throw every single one of the unwelcome guests at the Phantomhive manor into the river to join the woman. "Very well. I shall come with you." He motioned to Lydia, leading her over to the servants' entrance, a little, ivy-covered door which was practically growing into the wall. "Mas- ah- Will you please wait inside? You recall where the kitchens are, yes?" She nodded up at him, and he helped her onto the crumbling doorstep. "Please wait for me in there. I shall try not to be long. By no means should you ascend into the regular manor unaccompanied. Meirin, follow me." Sebastian bowed to Lydia, and then strode off, still looking rather upset with the whole affair. The maid named Meirin set out behind him, turning often to look back curiously at Lydia. She attempted to ask Sebastian who she was, but by this time the demon was moving so fast that the red-haired human had to flat-out run in order to keep up.

Lydia watched them as they swept across the gardens and vanished down the steps which led to the second terrace. Alone at last, she glanced up at the comfortable, familiar servants' door. It was kind of funny, she thought with a repressed smile. This was the door through which she had departed that time, on that rainy day. She had hugged Sebastian on that day much like she'd hugged him just now- only much harder. She had been crying. He had not cried (he never cried) but he clung onto her, overpowering, overbearing. He had refused to let her go. His fingers had bruised her. She had finally forced his hands to release her. Then she had painfully, deliberately peeled off everything he had tried to make her, handed it back to him, and ran out into the rain. She had known that it would wash her footprints and her scent and her past away, quickly, quickly. He had stood in the doorway as she vanished under the curtain of falling rain, unable to follow, leaning against the frame as though he had lost the strength to stand. That rejection (for it had been a rejection, as much as she still cared about Sebastian,) continued to burn him, she knew. And just yesterday (had it really been just yesterday?) she had taken the Phantomhive ring out of the box, dressed herself in mourning clothes, and came back in the same way that she had left. It really was a funny world, Lydia thought to herself as she swung open the inviting door and slipped inside, fully intent on hurrying to the kitchens and finding herself some of the tea, scones, and quiet thinking time which she had been denied earlier.